Despite a rough first half, the Boston University men’s lacrosse team secured a win against No. 19 Loyola University Maryland 12-11 in overtime to end its two-game losing streak and clinch a spot in the Patriot League Tournament.
The Terriers (10-3, 4-3 Patriot League) were led by stellar performances from senior midfielder Cal Dearth and junior faceoff specialist and midfielder Joe Stucky in the second half.
“I just thought to myself personally, ‘Just hold the ball, make good decisions, don’t force anything like I did against Army,’” Dearth said. “I think the whole team, we had just played a scenario like that, so that was good for us.”
BU’s clearing has often been its Achilles’ heel in the past, which showed in the first half against Loyola (7-5, 5-2 Patriot League), as poor clearing (3-7) and turnovers (seven) plagued the Terriers. They ended up turning it around to go 9-14 on clears after clearing all but one ball in the second half.
BU head coach Ryan Polley attributed the team’s inability to clear to poor decision-making.
“That was a big focus at halftime; slow clearing down, if we have the obvious transition we got to make the play,” Polley said. “[Senior defenseman Dominick] Calisto has to throw that ball, but he just has to make a better pass.”
While the Terriers opened the game with three goals, the Greyhounds responded with four of their own going into the second. Dearth was able to get BU on the board in the second quarter, but Loyola fired two more, which Dearth contributed to early-game jitters.
“We came out hot and then we let it slip a little bit,” Dearth said. “I think, even though we’re a very veteran team, we’re still very young as well. We have a lot of guys all the way from freshmen to seniors, so we tend to get a little jittery sometimes. I think that was a couple mental mistakes, but I think we rebounded very well in the second half.”
Neither team was able to find the back of the net for a majority of the third quarter until Greyhounds midfielder Jay Drapeau notched his third goal of the game.
After sophomore attacker James Burr scored, Loyola senior Zack Sirico had a goal to bring the Loyola lead to 8-5.
The third quarter has been BU’s worst quarter all season, and it seemed no different until Dearth scored with under a minute and a half remaining. This marked a turnaround for the team, as he scored once again with 15 seconds remaining in the quarter to bring the Terriers within one goal.
Polley noted that in tough third periods, the team often needs a goal to spark it back to life.
“We got it down to two,” said Polley. “[There’s a] big difference between a two-goal game and a four-goal game, so I think once Cal scored and we got the huge play at the end. I think that kind of relaxed everybody, so that was a critical point.”
Another determining factor of the second half was Stucky’s performance at the faceoff X. In the first half, he went 50 percent against Greyhounds primary senior faceoff specialist Graham Savio.
Savio is ranked No. 11 in the nation for faceoff percentage (.596) and 10th for ground balls per game (7.25).
Stucky went 10-for-14 in the second half, giving BU much-needed possession.
“Probably just confidence I guess,” Stucky said of his improvement. “Once you get a couple wins going, especially on days like this, you don’t have weather being a factor and you can kind of just get in the groove. I think that’s what happened in the second half.”
After BU’s one-goal loss to the United States Military Academy last week, the team was able to close this game to show that it deserves its first appearance in the Patriot League tournament.
“They have such a legacy, the senior group does, but we want it to be this special legacy,” said Polley. “We want them to write this really unique chapter and today was a big chapter in that. That was playing a story program, a final four team from last year, the No. 19 with all this history and to happen what happened against Army last week, [I’m] just so pleased and proud of the guys that we were able to come out on the winning end.”
